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Ahhhh!!! I am sooo sorry!! It has been WEEKS since my last entry and I feel awful! My excuse is, I have been having way too much fun with family coming and we have done SO much lately, that I have been too exhausted to write! I have 3 more entries to write about so HERE we go, bare with me!
SO, the Clines! Who are the Clines? Well, before I got married and became an awesome Parsons, I was a Cline! Yes, it's my maiden name. I have 2 older sisters who are married-the oldest is pregnant with her first baby (YAY!), and the next oldest has 2 kids. (I will write about their vacation here in a later blog). But the Clines that visited me a couple weeks ago are my parents and my youngest brother, Danny! (My other brother is serving an LDS mission in Las Vegas, Nevada).
DAY 1
Their vacation started by me picking them up from the Honolulu International Airport! I rode the bus there (and got bad motion sickness-almost puked in my water bottle haha), but that ended once I got to the airport. I picked up some Hawaiian leis for them and was there as they arrived! It was SO nice seeing them; I have missed them so much!
They got a rental car for the week and a hotel as well, so we drove to their hotel in Waikiki (which happens to be only a couple blocks away from my apartment!) Once they got settled in and Brad arrived (Friday yay!), we went to Tiki's for dinner! Really good food!! (My favorite is their chocolate banana shake yumm!) But since they were still on Houston time (5 hours late), they were exhausted and went straight to sleep after that!
DAY 2
The next day we all got up and got together to go to Waikiki beach! SUPER popular beach; always entertaining! Mom made extra sure everyone wore sunscreen because it was a hot hot day! We rented a couple beach chairs, then got Danny and Dad surfing lessons!! First, I will tell you about Dad's experience. He got out there like a champ and did his best! But laying on the board got really painful for him. He did catch a wave on his knees!! He wanted to make sure all of his co workers knew he tried!! But he had to paddle back in after a short while because of the pain, then chilled on the beach and he was fine.
Danny did AWESOME! Got up on his first wave and like, every one after that!! I couldn't count how many waves he rode; he was a natural!! There was one point he rode a wave all the way to shore and ran into some girl chilling in her tube haha. But OH MAN he had fun!
After surfing we chilled on the beach for a bit, then went to my favorite Hawaii burger joint-Teddy's Burgers! It's right across the street from the Honolulu Zoo (and a part of the Waikiki Grand Hotel), bu they have amazing burgers and shakes! Then we all went home to chill for a bit, then went out later to hike Manoa Falls!!
Manoa Falls was filmed in Jurassic Park, and is a short but fun tourist hike! I actually have taken Kodiak multiple times before on this one. But it was fun taking my family and Brad for their first time! Kodiak had fun as always. You can read details about the hike in one of my previous blogs here (and see the video!): http://sarahbradparsons.blogspot.com/2015/06/manoa-falls-hike.html
Mom accidentally got sunscreen in her eye and Dad fell once coming down but other than that we had a great time! We sang camp songs on the way down and Danny showed off his cool hand clapping skills! It was great weather; nice and shady/cloudy. Perfect afternoon hike!
DAY 3
Sunday came around the next day. We woke up for 9am church and had a wonderful service! My ward here in Waikiki always has lots of visitors, so they make any visitor feel welcome. In relief society, they give you hand knitted leis! The church is beautiful with a Christ mosaic, a fountain in front, and a Kapok tree next to it that makes for fun vine swinging! Of course everyone tried that and had a great time!
After church we had lunch then drove to Kailua Beach to take in the scenery and take cool beach pictures. My mom really enjoyed taking sunset pictures, and it's such a pretty beach, who could blame her? We got really nice photos of our little "family" (Me, Brad, and Kodiak), like this one!
DAY 4
POLYNESIAN CULTURAL CENTER DAY!
The PCC (for short), opens at 12pm, so we still had the morning to do stuff. I woke up early and took my dad walking in Waikiki, where we got to stop by the bird guy on the pier-a local who feeds the birds and tons of birds will flock to him and anyone he gives the bread he has to. Dad thought that was cool. We walked back to the hotel then all drove to North Shore. We got our tickets around 11am, but still had an hour to get lunch, so we then drove to North Shore Tacos-about 5 minutes away, and ate lunch. BEST TACOS EVER! They're famous for their fish tacos, but I really like their sweet pork ones. Also, ask for samples of the drinks if you're visiting. I like the pineapple tiki drink that they give in a pineapple for you. A little pricier but in my opinion, SO worth it!
We drove back to the PCC and went in! We got to see the islands of Samoa, Aotearoa, and Tonga. (In my opinion-the best ones...plus Hawaii). Tonga and Samoa are my favorites by far though. Mom got a free head band at Samoa. In the summer like when we went, it was really hot. Bring an umbrella & sunscreen especially if you are a whitey like my family and burn easily. Also, we got to see the canoe pageant, the family got a free ukelele lesson (which Danny LOVED-he was hooked!), and we took the tram tour through BYU-Hawaii and to the Laie LDS Temple!
Since we are Mormons, we loved going to see this temple and visitors center. I thought it was awesome that the LDS missionaries ran the tram tour. What better people to do it eh?? So 2 missionary girls were the hosts and they did such a great job. What a cool mission! Be nice to them because they don't get paid anything! Strictly volunteer work for the church! Another cool fact is that 70% of the employees at the PCC go to BYU-Hawaii, and your tickets help pay for their tuition!
We got to go to the actual Luau at the PCC which was really fun. They had good food, a show, and had volunteers get up (newlyweds, anniversaries, etc), and I got to go up and dance! But HONESTLY here's what I thought afterwards. I liked going to the simple buffet over the luau because it's less expensive, the same food, you see the same dancing in the night show afterwards, AND at the buffet you eat then leave while everyone else is still at the luaus, so you basically have the whole park to yourself! Take that time to see the cool IMAX movie, or go to the shops or just take in the scenery! The luau line was long, and the show was long. But still fun for my family! My Mom loves the taro bread (purple bread).
Of course then you have the night show: HA-Breath of Life. SO AMAZING! You're time at the PCC isn't worth it if you don't see the show. It's NECESSARY if you come here. It gets out at 9pm, so everyone is exhausted by that time, and it's a long 1.5 hour drive home. But we made it safely.
You can read my blog about my first time at the PCC here (and see the video!): http://sarahbradparsons.blogspot.com/2015/05/laie-temple-mormons-and-polynesian.html
DAY 4
NORTH SHORE DAY
This is always my favorite thing to do. Visit North Shore. There is so much to do and see! We were going to stop off on the way at the Dole Pineapple Plantation, but Mom suddenly didn't want to because she doesn't like pineapples. Haha, but for all it's worth, I have been there before and it's really cool! But we drove straight to North Shore and stopped in Haleiwa for some lunch at Breaker's (good food!) Danny had Loco Moco, and the rest of us shared some seafood-crab cakes and coconut shrimp! Mmmm!
We walked around the shops, and also drove to an ukulele shop where Danny got his souvenir-a nice ukulele. He couldn't put it down the whole rest of the day!
After that we drove to Shark's Cove to rent snorkel gear, THEN drove to turtle beach (Laniakea Beach). This is where I like to snorkel because of all the turtles! (Hence the name!) Mom stayed on the beach first to watch our stuff while I went out with Dad and Danny to snorkel! We saw lots of tropical fish, but we were lacking in turtles. Luckily, Dad spotted one close to the beach, and they were able to swim with him!! I even took a selfie with him (being careful not to touch him-illegal)
Mom finally got out there and stayed in the shallow area. She was able to also see the turtle! So everyone spotted one and got some cool, refreshing snorkeling in! It wasn't even hot so no one got sunburned!
After snorkeling we drove back to Haleiwa to get some of the famous Matsumoto's Shaved Ice! Mom had mentioned she wanted real Hawaiian shaved ice, and this was the perfect place for it! There's a reason it's famous and usually always has a long line! It was SOOO YUMMY! You have to either get ice cream or condesned milk with it-sooo good!!! Luckily we got there in time before they closed. So happy we stopped! And that ended our day at North Shore!
DAY 5
KAYAKING
Another early morning started with driving to Kailua Beach and renting 2 double kayaks! We kayaked out to a little flat island in front of Kailua Beach that has a seabird nature preserve on it. We got to see the cool seabirds as well as some fish and an awesome eel in the ocean! We walked around the island for a while then kayaked back to shore. We still had a bit of time so we kayaked down the canal, which was really fun!
Here is Brad and I's adventure going kayaking to a different, further island in a previous blog/video:
We took our kayaks back to the rental place then stopped and ate at Bob's Pizzeria. Pizza tastes so good after an arm workout while kayaking in the ocean! Danny also had fun with the water guns they supply you during lunch to squirt annoying pigeons away from the outdoor eating area.
That evening I took Danny back out to Waikiki with a rental surfboard (and my long board), and we swam at sunset! We both really enjoyed it! While we did that, Mom and Dad attended a session at the Laie LDS temple; they said they loved it!
After we all met back up we had hula dogs for dinner-a genius invention I say. Hot dogs that are only open at the top so that the sauces don't squeeze out the sides. And rich flavor! SO good!
DAY 6
Last official day! So, while Danny was adventurous and wanted to go parasailing, Mom really wanted to go to the Botanical gardens. So, we split up! Danny and I took the bus to Kewalo Basin and went parasailing!! We took a boat out with about 10 people and got going! Danny and I were the last ones to go, and by that time, the winds were picking up, so the crew was like, "uhh we need more weight, so you get to go with a 3rd person". We were okay with that! Danny was a little nervous at first, but once we got up he was all happy and had a blast! They dunked us in the water multiple times which is always my favorite part! And reeled us back in after an 8 minute ride.
Back to my parents, they visited the Foster Botanical Gardens and they said it was very nice! I have never been, but my mom loves the nature here in Hawaii and she wanted to take photos and learn the names of all the trees, plants, and flowers. Not my cup of tea, but for anyone into that, they highly recommended it.
That night we actually went to the restaurant located inside my parent's hotel (Waikiki Hilton) called the MAC restaurant. They are famous for their giant pancakes-which my mom got and loved! The rest of us got other food; still really delicious!
After that we walked around Waikiki and got souvenirs. It was awesome having my family here in Hawaii to visit! It was a once in a lifetime experience! We said our goodbyes and they left the next morning. It was a lot of vacation, but there are no regrets! We will be able to look back and remember all the fun times together!
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Again, here is the video that goes along with this blog:
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